Template talk:Category redirect
Sample usage To redirect from Category:Toads to Category:Frogs, simply add the following to Category:Toads: : If the target category does not yet exist, you may have a problem and need to state its full page name (using prefix "Category:"), but by August 2011 that problem seems to have been fixed on this wiki. Check the result in case it has "Category:" twice or not at all.. Note that it does not "redirect" automatically as a normal redirect does. Someone (possibly using a bot) has to change the link in each affected page. Source The following applies to the template: Permanence Like most redirects, category redirects should rarely if ever be deleted. Despite not working automatically, they help unwitting creators of bad category links (or someone else) to correct the errors. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 10:52, December 26, 2012 (UTC) :Except category redirects aren't like most redirects, because they don't actually redirect in any meaningful way. You can't put a page in the wrong category and have it appear in the right category by wiki magic. If deleted categories still appeared red (I'll never understand why they don't any more), this wouldn't be an issue because people would be able to see when the category didn't exist. Once we've got a handle on the categories (and I confess this might take a while), I'm firmly of the opinion that we should start deleting them. As long as we stay on top of the situation, I don't think it'll be an issue. -- Supermorff (talk) 17:01, December 28, 2012 (UTC) Well, I agree with most of that but I stick by everything I said. I know that a deleted category doesn't show as red any more when you try to create a link to it, and I complained to Wikia management about that, but we can still minimize work by leaving the "redirects " in place: that way, someone will eventually see (BEFORE a lot of time could be wasted in enhancing and reusing that wrong category and giving it parent categories etc) that a category is wrong and will see a direct link to the category the page should be in. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:43, December 29, 2012 (UTC) :I'd have to agree that these should be deleted, since they don't really serve any real purpose and only add clutter to other categories, as well as obscuring the real "unused categories" in the Special Pages area. Accidental creation of bad category links is best dealt with by active patrolling, which should not be a problem these days with the editor mass available here. Russ3Z (talk) 18:42, June 1, 2017 (UTC) ::They do not add clutter to other categories if all of their parent category links have been removed. They do serve a real purpose: they save time for unwitting would-be creators and for correcters in indicating what the correct category should be. "Active patrolling" may be good only if you really have editors around with no useful content-creation to be getting on with. Are you proposing a system of ensuring that every edit is checked by an administrator or some other nominated paerson? In which part of the Special Pages area do redirects detrimentally obscure other categories? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 08:11, June 2, 2017 (UTC)